On July 26, Shaanxi Public Security Network, Shaanxi Food and Drug Administration and Alibaba Co., Ltd.signed a Cooperation MOU on Fight against Internet-related Crimes in Food and Drug Fields, aimed at information sharing and joint crackdown on Internet-based food and drug safety crimes so as to remove those “potential risks” for consumers in their online shopping. It is the first time for the public security agency, the food and drug regulator and the online trading platform to combat crimes related to food and drug safety by jointly signing an MOU.

The officials from Shaanxi Public Security Network and Shaanxi Food and Drug Administration said that in the first half of this year, the provincial public security agency handled 311 criminal cases of food and drug at a value of RMB 61.23 million. The food and drug regulator looked into 6,774 food and drug cases, and confiscated and fined RMB 26.95 million. In order to expand the crackdown and prevent the Internet from being the "land of outlaw" of food and drug safety crimes, these two authorities have close cooperation with online platforms such as Alibaba. Taking advantage of big data technology, authorities identified important clues by aggregating, analyzing and refining fragmented online data. The signing of MOU will see three parties create a track of coordination to assist investigation and evidence collection, improve efficiency of coordination and provide stronger support for joint efforts to maintain food safety and market order for the public while ensuring data security protection.